István Fábián, the rector of the University of Debrecen, where the summer school was founded, said thousands of ethnic Hungarians from abroad as well as other foreign students had attended the summer school. More than 4,000 have attended courses at the summer school?s satellite in Budapest since it opened ten years ago, he added.
The Debrecen Summer School was established by János Hankiss, Rezső Milleker, and Béla Tankó, three professors in the University of Debrecen?s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, in 1927. Their purpose was to popularise Hungarian as the language of a ?small? nation in a world in which, as Hankiss put it, ?nations are so intertwined that it would be a hopeless and harmful endeavour to pick out certain thicker lines, single national threads, to the detriment of the whole fabric?, according to the school?s website.
This year, the largest number of participants came from the United States, followed by German-speaking countries, Poland and France, said Debrecen Summer School director Péter Szaffkó. Students have also arrived from Brazil, Japan, India, Thailand and Tunisia, he added.
In addition to language, participants learn about Hungarian history and culture.
Almost a hundred students won scholarships to attend the summer school this year.
An international conference for non-Hungarian teachers of Hungarian language has been organised to coincide with the summer school.
As part of a European Union project, language teachers from Romania, Poland, Turkey, Greece and Italy will attend Hungarian courses for four days to exchange professional experience, Szaffkó said.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
